


Kamen Rider Alchemist

by hktk



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Alchemy, Canon Trans Character, Fan Kamen Rider, Follows Rider Formula, Gen, Geology, Hurt/Comfort, LGBTQ Themes, Monster of the Week, Monsters, Self-Discovery, Smart but Dumb Protagonist, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25807477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hktk/pseuds/hktk
Summary: Teruki Akashiya is a geology student, and he quickly learns that disasters always come in threes...or fours, in his case. After losing his scholarship, his job, and his apartment, he answers a strange advertisement on the bulletin board at his school that reads...DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE?!After a flurry of events he thinks he's hallucinating, including strange twins, a monster, and a really sick bike ride, he does end up changing in a way that will transform his life like never before.--A fan Kamen Rider that updates every two weeks.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Kamen Rider Alchemist

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is [Valentine](https://twitter.com/hktk1059) speaking. Kamen Rider Alchemist is a fan Rider created by me and [Nao](https://twitter.com/winduphyth)! It was created a few years ago but we're finally going back and finalizing concepts as well as actually writing it. 
> 
> [Overview of Characters & Systems Here!](https://alchemist.crd.co/) <\--- I recommend reading that link. It'll show you who we have casted for each character so you may envision them in your heads yourself! As we post more, this site will slowly get updated, and there will always be an update here when it does! 
> 
> Though we are following (and lampshading) the Rider Formula(TM), we have decided to split certain chapters up into smaller chunks for easier pacing.

Teruki Akashiya’s first day of this new term is starting out great.

It all began this morning, (1) when he found out that the apartment he’s staying at is closing down, to be turned into a shopping strip.

And closing down, of course, means the tenants need to leave. And they needed to leave that exact same morning.

“Wait, wait, hold on a second!” Teruki wasn’t exactly dressed for eviction, in his shirt and boxers since he was dressing for school. He had been trying to stop these people from entering his apartment and tossing his things out, to no avail. “We’re supposed to get a notice or something, aren’t we?! You can’t just evict us on the same da--”

“We’ve sent out a notice months ago!” His ex-landlady held up said notice, with all the details. She clicked her tongue exasperatedly at him. “There’s notices on the bulletin board. Everywhere in the complex! Your mailbox is flooded with them! You’re the only tenant here left, didn’t you know?”

“A-ah—?!”

That’s what he gets for never ever checking his mailbox. Or his surroundings, apparently. University work does a lot of things to you, okay? Thankfully, Teruki didn’t really have much on him to begin with, so he was able to get all his stuff pretty quick, with some, err, unwanted assistance. Guess he’s gonna look like some kind of intense mountain hiker in the city now, with his huge-ass backpack and huge-ass sling bag. And while he thought this was quite the predicament already....

(2) He then found out he can’t even get classes this semester, because his professor lost his final exam and paper and doesn’t even remember him submitting it. 

“What do you mean you don’t remember?! I spent hours waiting for you to arrive to be able to submit that! Sir, please, I can’t enlist in classes without my grade in yours! You can’t just—”

He was met with a door to his face in response.

He’s done for today, he thought. For sure. But he had no clue there was something even worse on the horizon, because…

(3) Forget not being able to take classes, he can’t even pay to take them!

He had been awarded a scholarship, you see, awarded only to the smartest of the smart, the creamiest cream of the crop of Tadakura University—a privilege full of pride, and prestige! In exchange for a fully paid tuition, and having his other school expenses, rent, food, transportation, and basically _everything_ he needs to spend on paid for, he needed to maintain a very strict average grade. 

....And he apparently missed that grade by 0.01. Disaster comes in threes, after all.

“NOOOOOOO!!!” 

Teruki is clinging to the doorframe of the scholarship office, a rather undignified sight. Two officers are trying to get him out. A third has gone off to call security. People are stopping, looking, whispering, watching. What a sight.

“Please, please! There’s got to be a mistake! No, there is a mistake! All my grades last semester make the cut, I’m sure of it! Please, don’t—”

“We told you, we use a system to compute this, and you didn’t make the cut! Besides that, you have an incomplete class on record, so—”

“No, no! That class isn’t incomplete, the professor just—”

He’s cut off, as a security personnel arrives, prying him off the doorframe. He wails, his cries echoing across the entire building as he’s forcefully escorted all the way out.

There’s a thud as he hits the ground, and while the building doors couldn’t slam on him since they’re automatic, they might as well have. Actually, they might have? He heard doors slamming clearly. In his mind.

The doors of his entire life closing.

“Ah.”

Ah.

What is this feeling? Is it the feeling of one’s entire life crashing all in one day? Not a day yet, even. It’s only 1:00 pm. 

He doesn’t even notice the security personnel leave, or the people coming and going, watching him as he just kind of. Lay there on the pavement. He’s had more than enough for the day. Maybe he’ll wake up later and find it’s all a dream.

...Hm. Actually. He pinches himself to check. 

“Ow!” 

….That felt depressingly real. Ah.

“Okay… Okay, Teruki!”

He finally sits up, disheveled and stuff all over the place, but he at least looks a little spirited. 

“It’s gonna be okay!” He tells himself, very loudly, clapping his own hands to his cheeks. “So what if you don’t have a house! You don’t even sleep since you pull all-nighters all the time! You don’t need a house! You can shower at the school gym! And you can just f-find what you did last semester, and that old geezer will be okay with it! ...Right?”

He pauses in his desperate self-pep talk. He doesn’t know what to do about the money.

“Ah…Well, I still have some money so I can survive if I eat cheap once a day. Okay, then I have two days to get the money and pay for my tuition... M-maybe...if I put more hours in at work—maybe I can ask for an emergency advance—!”

He gets cut off as his phone rings. He pauses for a few moments, uncertain, before he answers.

“Hello? Akashiya speaking.”

“Hey, Teruki! It’s me!” 

“Oh, Manager...?” He recognizes the voice instantly. It’s his manager from his part-time job. What timing. “Actually, I—”

“Yeah, hey! Uh… I’ve got a bit of news for you. Half the cafe burned down.”

“W-what?! Burned down?!”

“Haha, yeah! So uh, we’re closing down for a long while. The damages are pretty bad. Someone left the…”

Ah. There goes (4). Did he say disaster came in threes? It was four, after all. Four.

“I… I see.” He isn’t even listening anymore.

He doesn’t notice when the phone call ended, or when he gathered all his stuff. He doesn’t notice when he began walking dejectedly away from the building, or even where he’s headed now. 

Ah. 

Ah.

He suddenly finds himself in front of the school bulletin boards.The colors of different club and event ads kind of blur together in a mess, just like how his future is a big damn blur right now, he thinks. He shakes his head to get the thought out of there. He was about to leave when one particular ad caught his eye. It was just plain black text, on plain white background. It looks like it’s been handwritten in a marker. The header reads:

**DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE?!**

Okay. Uh. Teru shakes his head, but reads on despite himself.

**DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE?!**

**Do you WANT:  
** **✓ FREE Room and board  
** **✓ FREE Schooling and sponsorship  
** **✓ 500,000 YEN allowance per MONTH (subject to additional INCENTIVES!)**

**VISIT: Basement M, Institute of Geological Sciences, Tadakura University, and look for Ren Mousu for interview and testing.**

...That is... That sure is an ad. He’s no design or advertising specialist, so he really can’t comment on it besides the content.

“Free schooling and sponsorship, free room, 500,000 yen allowance? That’s even more than what I had, that’s just too good to be true—”

Seriously. With no other details, like what you'd actually need to do, who’d even entertain that? 

…Was what he was thinking, about ten minutes ago, before he finds himself walking down the stairs, towards the basement area of the Geological Sciences building.

Since he is—was? He suddenly wants to cry now, but he stops himself—a geology major, he’s obviously been to the building before. The ground floor is the lobby, with seats and such for students or guests to use. On the next two floors are teacher rooms, and some specialty classrooms and labs. On the topmost floor is the library, containing every and all work pertaining to geology imaginable, with some unpublished work by students and faculty themselves in there too.

He’s only been to the basement area a few times. As far as he knew, most of the rooms there were research rooms, with a few turned into classrooms here and there. But he didn’t know there were other floors. Basement M seems to be right below this first basement. He’s going down a flight of stairs now, where a door awaits at the end.

“Ah.”

He blinks. Wow. He must be that desperate. So desperate, he isn’t even aware of it.

He looks around him, belatedly. This looks shady as hell, and for it to have its own floor means it must be a really big lab. 

….But it can’t be that shady, since it’s in the school grounds… Right?

Maybe?

Well… He’s already lost practically everything, so there’s no harm done now that he’s here. Maybe. He’ll just run the hell outta there the moment they bring out knives or other questionable items. Yeah?

“...I’m really doing this?” He sure is. He feels like he’s in some sort of daze, not really sure what he’s doing as he knocks on the door. The door is black, thick, made of iron and gears, with a large M plastered on it—then next to the M is a little stretch of masking tape; on this piece of tape is ‘ohs’, written hastily in marker. 

The basement staircase is quiet. Very quiet. Eerily quiet.

As Teruki knocks upon it only once, there’s a bit of a pause and a grinding sound, as if gears are moving within the door—and then the door recedes further into the wall it’s embedded in. Steam exhales itself from somewhere, narrowly missing Teruki’s face directly. 

The two large gears on its front, beneath the M, turn, and then the door slides open.

See, Teruki isn't a fan of horror or thriller movies, but he knows quite enough to know this is a flag of some sort. The door just. Just _opens_ , and the inside is too not well lit to be welcoming. 

The laboratory is completely dark. The only lights are soft, ambient glows from various round containers with tree-like curls inside. The largest glow, however, is a larger cylindrical container near the back of the room, about 10’ by 8’. A golden version of these silver ‘trees’ is inside, stretching upwards until it peaks out of whatever liquid it seems to be in and melts away. 

Lab equipment is scattered everywhere. Whoever works here isn’t very neat. God, there’s so many of these little tree containers. The back of the room has stairs curling around either side of the golden tree, leading up to a higher level with very important looking computers. 

There is a single, wooden chair in front of the golden tree, facing it.

"This is how people from horror movies die,” Teruki says aloud.

...And yet, he steps inside anyway.

As soon as he does, getting a few steps in to look at the...room (someone sure has a hobby), the door shuts behind him with a hiss, a click, then gears moving. Totally not creepy or shady. He should really be more alarmed, but he's too tired to panic. Do disasters come in _fives_?

There’s movement from atop the second level. From behind the golden tree steps two individuals, one at the top of each set of stairs. They seem like twins, in every way, except for the fact they mirror one another. 

Dark brown bangs that seem black in this light, eerily lit by the ambient glows, fall over the right eye (Teruki’s left) of a girlish figure, to Teruki’s left; the same set of bangs fall over the left eye (Teruki’s right) of a boyish figure to Teruki’s right. They wear unbuttoned, stark white lab coats that go to their knees. The girl wears a crimson turtleneck, whereas the boy wears a blue one. 

Okay this looks more like a creepy sci-fi now. Scifi-horror? At least there's a genre. Teruki kinda watches sci-fi sometimes, too. He looks at the twins warily, taking a few steps forward and bowing slightly.

A few moments after revealing themselves, the girl sweeps her right arm out and the boy, his left. The girl smiles, and the boy does not. 

“Welcome,” lilts the girl, “to Mohs Lab~!” 

“Welcome,” deadpans the boy at the same time as she speaks, “to Mohs Laboratory...”

"Uh," Teruki begins, eloquently, "...Hi. I'm here for that, uh. Ad." 

Shouldn't he be screaming and running away right now? He's too calm that he's worrying about being too calm while still being calm.

In complete and utter sync, the twins descend the stairs. While the boy steps all the way down to the floor, the girl stops abruptly two steps before it, as if realizing something very suddenly. 

“A-Ah! Wait! It’s ‘lab’ right? _‘Lab’_ , not ‘laboratory’?!” she gasps. 

The boy looks back to her, a bit delayed. “... huh...? No... it’s ‘laboratory’.”

“S-Since when?” She hurried down the last two steps. “That’s too Japanese! He’d never say that!” 

The boy looks to the ground, shoving his hands into his pockets. Contemplative. “... huh. You’re right... should we ask him?”

"Um..." Teruki clears his throat. "It's probably not 'laboratory' since this isn't the Life Sciences institute or anything. We don't really do... that kind of stuff... in geology." He sure didn't expect to be discussing semantics with horror movie twins. "So probably "research room"? Though ‘lab’ is kind of general too, I hear that sometimes..."

“No, no,” says the girl cheerfully. “It doesn’t matter what other people do. It only matters what _Dad_ wants to do.” She laughs, though it’s awkward. 

“... well... we can ask him, later.” The boy shrugs, turning back to Teruki. 

The girl hurries ahead of him, stopping right in front of Teruki. She looks super cheerful. “A-Anyway! You said something about the ad, right?”

“Y...Yes. The ad.” His eyes feel like they’ll pop out of his head. 

The boy walks over to a control panel, flicking a few switches. The lab lights up, by section. Eventually, everything is lit as it seems to usually be. 

The girl smiles at Teruki, then heads to the other side opposite of the boy. She grabs a clipboard, drops into a spin chair, and wheels herself over to him. She holds the clipboard out to him, along with a pen. 

“Can you just fill this out for me, please~?” 

Things like name, age, birthday... normal things to put when checking into somewhere for the first time. It also asks for his school history, subjects and major, including GPA. It also asks for his favorite food? Okay. 

He watches as the twins move, as the lights flick on one by one. Maybe this is all an elaborate delusion. He's gotta give himself some sort of credit in that case. But he's pretty sure he doesn't have a thing for twins...? Whatever. He nods at the girl, taking the clipboard.

“After that...” The boy has come to stand behind the girl. “... we can explain.”

This is really all too surreal, Teruki decides. Well, the form seems harmless enough...? He fills it in as he reads along. It's going great, until he reaches a certain portion. He drops the pen.

"...U-Um. Do our grades and stuff......matter?"

The girl has swiveled the chair around and is sitting on it backwards, leaning against the back as he fills it out. The boy stands there calmly, watching with the one eye. 

“... huh?” The boy picks up the pen for him. 

“W-Well, I guess not! Er, do they?” She looks to the boy. 

“... I guess it’s to see if you’re... strong mentally. But if you don’t want to put them down...” he shrugs. He can always check later anyway.

Teruki takes the pen back, nodding in thanks. He looks like he's about to cry. He fills in the blanks wordlessly, though. He even puts his _incomplete_ in there, though he adds a note that says 'under negotiation'.

"H...Here...." he sniffles, handing the clipboard back to the girl, who happily takes it and scans it over.

“Oh wow! You’re super smart! Eheh! Archaeology and Geology, too! How perfect!!” She grins real widely at him, then notices he’s about to cry. “Are y-you alright?!” 

"H-huh?" he wasn't paying much attention. He blinks, and tears roll down his cheeks. Oh. He didn't even notice. "I-I'm fine!" He’s rubbing his eyes now.

The boy watches quietly, though concerned. He walks over to another desk to grab a box of tissues. When he gets back over to the pair, he holds the box out for him so that he can take some. 

“A-Are you sure?” asks the girl worriedly. “Do you need some water...?”

"I-I'm fine. I'm fine!" He sniffles, standing straight. He doesn't need tissues! Or water! He can't break down in this shady interview! "S-Sorry about that." He clears his throat.

The twins exchange glances. The girl heaves a heavy sigh, then smiles. The boy withdraws the tissues, still holding the box at his side. 

The girl flips the first page on the clipboard. “Oh! I forgot to tell you about the second page... well, it’s only one question, so you’ll be able to get it in no time!” 

She turns the clipboard back to him. 

**What do you want to change about yourself?**

"O-oh." 

He stares at the question for a bit, and takes the clipboard from her. He stares at it for a long while, not writing anything.

"Uh... what does this question... _mean_?"

The boy answers this time. “... what do you think it means?” he replies. “That is what it means.” 

The girl nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah!”

Teruki looks down at the sheet for a long while, not writing anything. Huh. The more he dwells on it, the more he can't really figure out what to write. He didn't expect a mini existential crisis.

The girl holds her hand out for the clipboard after a while. “... I see! Your silence is very telling. L-Let’s not cry again, okay?”

He finally writes something, before giving it back to the girl.

**Myself.**

The girl smiles at the answer. “Perfect! You’ll do just that!” She flips the page back over and wheels over to the desk again. She grabs a different clipboard and a small, black box. 

She holds the clipboard out for him to take. 

**I agree to live in M Lab for a year.  
** **I agree to wearing the Edelstone.  
** **X __________**

“Just sign here! Er, we don’t need your stamp or anything, so just your name is fine! Even a nickname will do!”

“Uh, what’s the ‘Edelstone’?”

The phone begins to ring from up on the second floor. The twins exchange glances again before the boy walks up the stairs to answer it, talking so quietly that the others cannot hear him.

Meanwhile, the girl opens the box up, showing a bracelet. Though there’s a seven-pointed-star on the front that looks as if it might house a gem of sorts, nothing is actually set. “It’ll go in here! It’s kind of like...who you are!” She holds out her own wrist, showing a reddish stone. “See? Here’s mine.” 

“Ohh.” Teruki’s eyes are still wide in confusion and disbelief. It seems harmless enough, though. “Is... is that it?” 

The girl nods. “Yep! Wear it for a year and _transform_!” 

“...Really? And I get paid more than a salaryman for it? And my schooling is paid for, too?” Teruki hesitates. “Is there some sort of qualification? I thought there was gonna be an interview or something...” 

She pulls the blank bracelet out of the box. “That’s it! Just gotta change. It seems kinda shady, right? But Dad—er, Professor Mohs has ties inside the school,” she explains. “And he’s very rich! So he can afford all this lavish stuff for our participant.” 

“So even _you_ think it looks shady.”

“Er... W-Well, he’s got a certain flare for doing things...” She laughs sheepishly. “I know Ran tried to talk him out of doing it this way, but he really insists. There’s absolutely nothing bad, though! I-I think he just watches too many horror movies, eheh...” 

“And his name was... Professor Mousu? I’ve never heard of him... Is he part of the faculty?” 

“He isn’t an official faculty member. He’s just sponsored by the school!” 

“Huh... Can I see it? The bracelet.” 

She holds it out to him. It’s a simple bracelet with absolutely nothing weird about it. “Here you go!” 

Teruki takes it, turning it and even checking the back, holding it up to the light, et cetera. “... _That’s it_? Why for?” 

“We’ve been studying the Edelstone. How it manifests is different for a lot of people! We’re curious about it, that’s all!” 

“.................” Teruki looks at her.

She holds her hand out for the bracelet again. “Just sign it, right? I’ve been wearing mine for years and years and nothing bad has happened. You can trust me!”

“You said the Edelstone is ‘who I am’. What does this mean? And this one’s blank. How will my ‘Edelstone’ show up?” 

“I’m not sure,” she admits. “We can’t do the tests until after you sign. It’s just like a physical education test, though.” 

“.................” He looks at her again. He’s not exactly fit, either. He looks kind of distressed now. He has so many emotions today. “...Okay, okay. I’ll just...sign, right?” And sign he does.

The girl claps her hands and takes the clipboard back. She finally stands up from the chair, pushing it away. It haphazardly runs into a desk but nothing falls over. She sets the clipboard down on another desk and turns to him. 

“Alright! Akashiya-kun, I think you’ll do perfect! Just hold out your left wrist, okay? Or, whatever wrist is non-dominant!”

He steps closer to her, hesitantly holding his right wrist out.

“Ohh? You’re left handed? So is Ran!” She smiles at him. She clasps the bracelet around him, and as soon as she does, it clicks shut. At the same time, a white stone with harsh blue streaks silently fills in the seven-pointed-star holder, solidifying.

As soon as that click is heard, too, the boy stands at the top of the stairs again. “Rin,” he calls. 

“Ehh? What is it?” 

“... Dad said not this one.”


End file.
